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As if the Flint machine couldn’t get any more trifling. First, city officials including Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder lied to residents and forced them to drink toxic water for 18 months. Meanwhile, clean water coolers were delivered for state workers, way before residents even knew the tap water was contaminated. Then after the crisis was exposed, they water company had the audacity to send out high water bills to residents basically forcing them to pay to be poisoned.

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And now, there are reports accusing Flint police of pretending to deliver water filters to homes when they are really there to hand out arrest warrants.

According to Counter Current News, residents have complained about police using this environmental crisis as a means to be hard on crime. The police go door-to-door “passing out” filters in order to get resident’s to identify themselves as if they are crossing that home off a delivery list. From there, after the residents “who otherwise might be hesitant to talk to the police,” confirm who they are, the police cuff and arrest them.

All under the manipulative guise of providing Flint residents with the much-needed help, especially since residents can’t get water and services without providing an I.D.

In a recent interview with Democracy Now!, Flint resident and recently released inmate, Jody Cramer said this happened to him.

“A lot of the deputies were passing out water filtration systems or—in the city. If you had warrants—they did a warrant sweep while they did that, so they tricked you. If you answered your door, and they would say, “Hey, how are you doing, Mr. Cramer?” If I responded, then I just confirmed that I’m me. “Well, here’s your water filtration system. By the way, you have a warrant for your arrest.” People were saying that’s how they got arrested.”

Cramer, who served two months in Genesee County Jail, said the water supply was suspect in jail and that inmates were forced to drink the tap water up until the end of last month, way after “ Flint’s newly elected Mayor Karen Weaver declared a state of emergency over high levels of lead in the city water” in October, Democracy Now! noted. 

He added, “Right, water was starting to be distributed on the 23rd of January. But the food they still served that day was already made already with the water. So, we kind of were like, “All right. Well, we’re distributing water, but what about this food that we’ve been eating all day—or all month or prior to this?”

He said prior to the water being delivered, “Many inmates made complaints due to the fact that the deputies would not drink from the faucets—they all carried bottled water. And on that same token, we were consistently told that the water in the jail was good.”

Oh and guess how many water bottles each inmate gets?

Forty-eight ounces a day to drink and two more for personal use.

“I was very much concerned that I’d get four bottles of water a day. I have two bottles at lunchtime, two bottles at dinnertime, per inmate. Yeah, I have to not only drink this water, but I have to brush my teeth. I drink coffee. We’ve been told that there’s nothing wrong with washing your body or hands with this water out the tap, that it’s just consuming it. That’s what they’ve been told.”

[SOURCES: Counter Current News, Democracy Now]

RELATED LINKS:

Hundreds Of Plumbers Replaced Faucets And Installed Water Filters In Flint For Free

MORNING MINUTE: Reportedly Flint Residents Can’t Get Bottled Water Without I.D.

Trifling: Flint State Workers Given Bottled Water 8 Months Before Residents Were Told Their Supply Was Unsafe

Did Flint Cops Pretend To Deliver Water Filters Only To Hand Out Arrest Warrants?  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com